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Home My WebLink AboutItem 2C - Public Comment1 Brent Rasi To:Monique Lomeli Subject:RE: Public Comment - Item From: Brian Eggert <eggert.brian@gmail.com> Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2022 1:09 PM To: City Clerk <CityClerk@palmspringsca.gov> Subject: Public Comment ‐ Item NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs ‐‐ DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. Regarding the 2022/2023 Budget. As the Race Director of the Annual Palm Springs Pride 5k Run and Walk I hope you continue the process of funding community based events through city sponsorship. We rely heavily on the city’s sponsorship through an in‐kind funding grant of services for police and street maintenance department services which were used during our previous events. Thanks for all you do for the community. Brian Eggert Sent from Mail for Windows 6/30/2022 Public Comment Item 2C From:City of Palm Springs To:City Clerk; City Clerk Subject:*NEW SUBMISSION* Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Date:Thursday, June 30, 2022 1:53:32 PM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Submission #:1781625 IP Address:72.132.252.255 Submission Date:06/30/2022 1:53 Survey Time:6 seconds You have a new online form submission. Note: all answers displaying "*****" are marked as sensitive and must be viewed after your login. Full Name/Nombre Lee Castillo City of Residence/Ciudad de residencia Palm Springs, Phone (optional) /Teléfono (opcional) 8019007558 Email (optional/opcional) jleecastillo@outlook.com Your Comments/Sus comentarios I am new to the Valley and am so happy to be a resident in Palm Springs; best decision I’ve ever made. I’ve followed the Palm Spring PD on FB and see the amazing work they do. Recently they combined their efforts with other community providers in the Cochella Valley to provide real time services to vulnerable people in need. I see how progressive Palm Springs is in so many aspects; compared to UT. I wonder if the City Counsel has given it much thought to hire a clinician/LCSW to work alongside Law Enforcement. This would allow them to focus on policing/enforcing the law and allow someone else to help with the social services aspect they run into daily. A clinician could target mental health needs, help people get into housing, help someone apply for various services, etc. I would be very interested in this type of position and creating the program that best fits the needs of Law Enforcement and our wonderful community. I love this place and am happy I get to call it home. Lee C Thank you, City of Palm Springs This is an automated message generated by Granicus. Please do not reply directly to this email. 6/30/2022 Public Comment Item 2C From:Robyn Meltzer To:City Clerk Subject:Palm Springs Library Date:Monday, June 27, 2022 9:21:07 AM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. As a City resident and Board member of the Palm Springs Library Foundation I am requesting that City funds be used and identified to update, upgrade and give our City the library it deserves. The Library was and is a lifeline to many of our Coachella Valley residents. During COVID we heard time and again how much the Library meant to them. I hope you release these funds so we can start the important work of creating a Community Library that we can be proud of. Sincerely, Robyn Meltzer Board Member and Nominating Chair PS Library Foundation 6/30/2022 Public Comment Item 2C 1 Brent Rasi To:Monique Lomeli Subject:RE: 2 years & counting... From: Dorian Whitney <dorian.whitney@gmail.com> Date: June 29, 2022 at 10:27:08 PM PDT To: Christy Holstege <Christy.Holstege@palmspringsca.gov> Subject: 2 years & counting... NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs ‐‐ DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. Hello, Councilmember Christy Holstege. My name is Dorian Whitney, resident of Palm Springs for 16 years. I am 25 years old, and have lived here since I was 7. It has been two years since the residents of Coachella Valley gathered to protest in Palm Desert on June 2020 for civil justice reform, & shouted chants begging for change & to defund the police. Since George Floyd in 2020, police have killed 1,063 people across the country, an average of 3 per day. I do not believe we need to wait for this to happen in Palm Springs to make change. More folks need to wake up & realize that the over‐investment in policing is directly connected to the underfunding of everything else & contributes to our failing infrastructure, overall public health, poverty, and making our society weaker overall. If we observe the data, it shows this. Thankfully, we have decades of data, & it is clear that this must change. I believe you guys have a duty to change the over‐policing we have now because that is not what prevents crime. Police do not prevent crime, they just try to stop it after its been done, but you guys can prevent crime. By giving people what they need, like housing, basic income, & infrastructure that promotes mental health. Things that prevent police contact. Why keep investing in band‐aids, when we can fix the problems from the root? Why not invest in science‐based crime prevention? In Uvalde, police did not even act at all for over an hour. Cops are a response to crime, not a crime‐preventative. And they solve about 2% of all major crimes; 6/30/2022 Public Comment Item 2C 2 https://www.insider.com/police‐dont‐solve‐most‐violent‐property‐crimes‐data‐ 2020‐6 https://theconversation.com/police‐solve‐just‐2‐of‐all‐major‐crimes‐143878 https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/08/20/police‐solve‐just‐2‐of‐all‐major‐crimes/ So theoretically, if we put twice as much money into cops, we will get, what ‐ 4% of major crimes solved? I’m just not understanding why, on an economics level, we’re not trying something else... Yes, people keep crying for more police because their crimes are not being prevented. We keep underfunding schools, public spaces, infrastructure, parks, & housing & each city has it’s own over‐militarized private army, yet crime keeps getting “worse” …. maybe it’s not working & we should listen to experts. Please defund the police just a tad bit. That is our taxpayer money & we want it re‐ invested into things that will prevent police contact in the first place. And the police left that we do have is for emergencies & when absolutely necessary. We do not want thugs with guns wandering around & roaming our streets. (Although it would probably continue after defunding them anyway) But that is not fighting crime, that is called ‘fishing' for any little thing to extort our already poverished communities for more money out of their pockets for simple things like not stopping all the way at a stop‐sign. This is the reality of our streets. But they don’t dare do that in wealthier white neighborhoods. Would you like them patrolling outside of your house 24/7? We just want the police available when we call for an emergency. Not “patrolling,” or sitting at an intersection corner. Actually, defunding the police does not change much in policing at all except it’s guys with no guns doing the light work. Makes no difference in response time for violent emergencies. Again, the Palm Desert protest was directed towards all of our leaders in the Coachella Valley, not just Palm Desert. We locals attended the protest, incase you read some propaganda saying people were transported by out of town or it was “Antifa” (give me a break) I am not anti‐police, but right now they have way too much of a budget from our money to even know what to do with. It's about having balance, & so much of that money can go towards so much more other things that are good for crime and mental health, like parks & universal basic income and all the other things the city says they don’t have money for like speed humps and pedestrian infrastructure. (Which means less traffic stops) We can never have too many parks, we need parks everywhere. Defunding The Police is not a cry for being anti‐police, it’s about helping them do their job by bringing in social 6/30/2022 Public Comment Item 2C 3 workers to take care of the jobs they do not even want, like traffic or non‐emergency calls. (Which we have not tried yet so we cannot use the present as an example) Then they have more man power to do the actual emergencies. Its a no‐brainer. The fake articles you may have seen the past 2 years saying we want to get rid of police completely and have no where to dial 911, that is propaganda. Police will always be around, but we just need to stop overfunding them. We have been crying for decades to End the War on Drugs, stop enforcing drug laws and start helping the addicts instead. Let’s treat it as a mental health issue, not a crime. This is a true human rights abuse & should end immediately. This is another thing we will fund by defunding the police, substance‐abuse programs. Below is a great article from Ben & Jerry’s; https://www.benjerry.com/home/whats‐new/2020/06/defund‐ the‐police Another 'ice cream bowl' Ben & Jerry’s could have added in this photo is Universal Basic Income. Because that is one of the things that prevents crime just like all these other ice cream bowls and we want to take out some of that police ice cream into that. We need Universal Basic Income. Why would somebody rob a bank or gas station if we had universal basic income? Why would someone shoplift when we have universal basic income? Why would someone sell drugs if we have universal basic income? What is the root of most problems? Money. So let’s fix it. Los Angeles is starting it with families who have a home and struggling, Palm Springs is starting with trans residents who struggle, Coachella is starting with it’s undocumented citizens, it is time for universal basic income. I stopped at a gas station last night, & I had not 1, but 2 different people ask me for money. Both of them not homeless, just stuck without gas.. Please at least start having talks about universal basic income. We are paying so much money for police, that we can afford universal basic income for all of the residents, and still have police. Here are some articles on that: The linked image cannot be displayed. The file may have been moved, renamed, or deleted. Verify that the link points to the correct file and location. 6/30/2022 Public Comment Item 2C 4 https://www.cbs17.com/news/local‐news/durham‐county‐news/durham‐ councilman‐seeks‐universal‐basic‐income‐in‐defund‐the‐police‐plan/ https://mashable.com/article/cities‐with‐universal‐basic‐income‐guaranteed‐ income‐programs https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/03/03/universal‐basic‐income‐ andrew‐yang‐guaranteed‐more‐cities‐test‐monthly‐check/6890858002/ I understand that your residents have not really been asking you for this straight‐ forwardly, but, it is something that they want. Let’s remember that the working class is too busy dealing with the obstacles of capitalism to come ask, or they do not think of speaking to their leaders, like me for example, I never thought of making local change until now because I am pissed off. The data also shows that it is a privilege to speak up here to you guys. A lot of us also think that ALL the rules are made at the very top, & cities cannot control much, when in reality, we can. Infact, I was inspired by listening to Congresswoman AOC, who told us to not only fight for change at the federal level, but also at the state level & locally in cities. That made me realize, city governments have a lot of power. I hope you can use your position to make good, meaningful, social change. Please Defund The Police & Refund our beautiful city & citizens. Thank you, Best Wishes; Dorian Whitney 6/30/2022 Public Comment Item 2C